Search form

NATO’s Next Secretary General: Jens Stoltenberg?

Why the former KGB ally is not fit for the job.

The Norwegian press has been buzzing with rumors lately that Jens Stoltenberg -- who until the autumn of 2013 was the Prime Minister of Norway -- is a serious candidate for becoming the new Secretary General of the Western defense alliance NATO. The former Danish PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen is stepping down from this position later in 2014.

Apparently, German Chancellor Angela Merkel proposed Stoltenberg for the job. Merkel made her proposal directly to US President Barack Obama, who agreed that he was a good choice for the role. Stoltenberg allegedly spent months discussing the role with the US Secretary of State John Kerry and his security advisor Susan E. Rice while he was in New York, ostensibly in his role as UN Special Envoy for Climate Change.

This is not a done deal yet, however. One of Mr. Stoltenberg's presumed rivals for the job as head of NATO is José Barroso, Portugal's former Prime Minister and also a former Communist. In 2014 Barroso will be stepping down as President of the European Commission, the unelected and unaccountable government for half a billion people in the EU. Barroso has held this job for ten years. Other possible NATO candidates who have been mentioned are Franco Frattini, Italy's former Foreign Minister, and Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland's current Foreign Minister.

The decision on who will become the next formal head of NATO has thus not been made yet. However, Jens Stoltenberg himself is taking this possibility so seriously that there are already rumors that he might soon be leaving his current position as the leader of the Norwegian Labour Party.

My opinion as a Norwegian is that Mr. Stoltenberg is personally unsuited for the task of being the Secretary General of NATO. Assigning him the job will further weaken the organization. Yes, this is mainly a symbolic position with limited power. However, the world is full of symbols because we realize that symbols can be important in real life. Elevating Jens Stoltenberg to such a position would send out the wrong signals.

For instance, it is a documented fact that Jens Stoltenberg was one of quite a few left-wing politicians in Western Europe who had a file with the KGB because they considered him to be a friendly contact. There are no indications that he did anything that was outright illegal with these friendly talks, but they were certainly unwise and reflect poorly on his character. The KGB was the secret police of the totalitarian entity known as the Soviet Union. Back then it was NATO's primary enemy and a very real military threat. It would look strange if a man who was classified as a friendly contact by NATO's primary enemy a generation ago were to become head of NATO today.

Moreover, as Norwegian Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg has in recent years been very weak in dealing with Islamic aggression.

Norway shares a border with Russia, as it previously did with the Soviet Union. I am not one of those who compare the Russian President Vladimir Putin to Hitler. This is hysterical hyperbole. However, Putin is certainly a ruthless Machiavellian character. While in power, Stoltenberg was not convincing when dealing with Putin or the Russians. He has a track record of being weak against almost any potential aggressor.

Mullah Krekar is perhaps the most notorious militant Muslim in Norway, where he is currently serving a prison sentence for death threats. He has previously praised the terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and stated that Muslims will conquer Europe. Krekar in 2013 advised Muslims in Norway to vote for Stoltenberg's Labour Party, as this would be the best option for the continued Islamization of the country. PM Jens Stoltenberg responded by chastising the opposition Progress Party for having used the term "stealth-Islamization."

The famous cartoons of Islam’s founder Mohammed, originally printed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September 2005, were republished by a tiny Christian newspaper in Norway whose editor was Vebjørn Selbekk. He reprinted them because it was natural to show what the news story was about. As a result of this, he soon received dozens of explicit death threats from Muslims. Some of these were very graphic, describing plans to cut his throat in his bed. He had enjoyed a quiet family life prior to this. Now suddenly everything was turned upside down. Bodyguards instructed his family on how to check for bombs under their car.

In addition to the many Islamic threats against him, Selbekk was strongly pressured to back down by leading Norwegian politicians such as Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre of the Labour Party. PM Jens Stoltenberg, at a point when Selbekk’s family were living with constant death threats, pointed him out as personally responsible for inciting the attack by an angry Muslim mob on the Norwegian embassy in Damascus, Syria. He and his government thereby indirectly gave legitimacy to Islamic death threats against one of their fellow citizens.

Then Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark showed some spine in 2005-2006 when faced with aggressive Islamic pressure in the same situation. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg of Norway showed none. In Oslo, Selbekk was forced to apologize to Muslims in a press conference organized by the Stoltenberg government.

One of those who had incited anger and hatred among Muslims by this time was Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. A delegation supported by the Stoltenberg government was soon sent to have talks with Mr. Qaradawi in Qatar. He there accepted Norway’s apologies to Muslims.

In 2008, members of the Muslim Brotherhood were invited for talks with the Foreign Ministry in Oslo. One of those who took part on behalf of the national authorities was Gry Larsen, a former leader of the Labour Party’s youth movement AUF. The freethinker Walid al-Kubaisi has correctly indicated that the Brotherhood represent a dangerous Islamic movement with totalitarian goals. Kubaisi in February 2006 warned that by applauding Vebjørn Selbekk's forced public apology to Muslims, the Stoltenberg government and Norwegian authorities could be seen as submitting to Islamic aggression against their own citizens.

Jens Stoltenberg seems to be just fine with the ongoing Islamization of his country and his continent. Meanwhile, he has expressed great concerns about global warming.

NATO was designed to defend the West against expansionist Communist aggression from the Soviet Union and its satellite states. With some justification, many observers see the organization as a relic of the Cold War.

The greatest threats to the Western world today are:

1. Legal and illegal mass immigration from the global South, which has now grown so numerically large that it threatens the long-term stability and future of the Western world.

Yes, Russia, China and other countries are economic and potentially military rivals. Furthermore, there is always the threat of military and industrial espionage, among other things. However, the greatest threat to the future existence of the Western world is Third World mass immigration, and Muslim immigration in particular. NATO needs to deal forcefully with these threats in order to stay relevant and credible.

This task is complicated by the generally Islam-friendly attitudes and open borders-ideology of the ruling Western elites. Moreover, the rapidly re-Islamizing country of Turkey is still a member of NATO. The United States Government has long pushed for Turkey to join the European Union (EU). The EU itself is currently engaged in talks about giving nearly 80 million Muslims from Turkey visa-free access to the EU.

At some point NATO has to decide whether it wants to be a credible defense alliance, or whether it simply wants to be the armed wing of Amnesty International. If the organization picks Jens Stoltenberg as its next Secretary General, it has chosen the latter option.